This invention relates generally to managing deals and deal information, and more specifically to methods and systems for managing deal workflow including approving deal documents, scheduling meetings, and managing minutes from meetings.
Identifying prospective customers, negotiating business deals with those customers, and finalizing those deals can be a time consuming and difficult task, especially for a large organization. A deal is defined as any transaction that involves at least two parties. A deal therefore may involve at least one of loans, leases, equity stakes and common equity. Examples within the loan category include construction loans, development loans, letters of credit, loan participation, revolver, senior loans, subordinated loans and U.S. tax exempt debt. Leases include single investor leases, leveraged leases, and off balance sheet loans. Equity and common equity further include equity, limited partnerships, limited partnership-tax credit deals, marketable securities, preferred limited partnerships, preferred stock, common stock, construction equity, development equity, and fund equity.
If many different products and services are offered by one organization, simply identifying the needs of prospective customers and whether such needs can be met by any of the offered products and services can require significant resources. Also, and in a large organization, communicating the efforts that have been made with respect to each prospective customer throughout the organization can be difficult in that many people can be involved in the deal origination efforts. Therefore, significant time and resources can be required to coordinate the internal efforts being directed toward each prospective customer to ensure that timely and meaningful information is provided and also to ensure that such efforts are not being duplicated elsewhere within the organization. Moreover, in a large organization, scheduling meetings to discuss prospective customers and their product needs, and documenting those meetings can be difficult. Additionally, in a large organization, obtaining approval of a document that sets forth the terms and conditions of a deal with a customer can be time consuming.
If a prospective customer indicates an interest in purchasing a product or service offered by the organization, it then becomes necessary for the organization to deliver based on the expectations that have been created during the selling process. Of course, failing to meet the expectations of a prospective customer can result in not only the loss of a sale, but also a loss of goodwill. Successfully completing a transaction with an opportunity for repeat business is facilitated by ensuring that tasks associated with completing the deal are completed on time. In order to ensure tasks are completed on time, each individual involved in the closing should clearly understand his or her role in completing each task and the date such task is to be completed. Such communication and effective management of deal closing can be challenging, especially if many deals are being handled at a given time and numerous individuals are involved.